Follow the Yellow Brick Road
by Woman of Letters
Summary: My version of the conversation in LARP and the Real Girl (8X11) where Dean forces Charlie to realize she is a hero... and they decide that even rocket launchers may belong in Oz. An Entry for the Hunter's Journal contest for July 2013 (on the Positively SPN community on LiveJournal).


**Follow the Yellow Brick Road **

by Woman of Letters

_An Entry for Positively SPN's Hunter's Journal contest for July 2013._

_Since my last foray into creating new dialogue for a canon scene was so successful, here we go again. This time I'm combining Supernatural with one of my favorite movies (so to speak). Starring Charlie and Dean as... Dorothy and... (the scarecrow?). How the heck do these things fit together? You'll see..._

**Kansas, Eighteen Years Ago**

The girl with the long red hair shut her flashlight and shoved the book under the covers, but it was too late. Her mother stood at the foot of the bed.

"Charlie?"

The girl shifted in her bed, trying to steady her breathing, but her mother just smiled knowingly. With ease borne of long practice, she crossed the room, slipped her hand underneath the pillow and pulled out the book.

"The Wizard of Oz... So that's what's been keeping you up."

The girl opened her eyes.

"Give it back!"

Her mother shook her head. "You know the rules, Charlie. You read after hours, I take it away for a whole night."

"Come on, Mom. I'm at the exciting part! I really want to know what happens..."

The woman ruffled her daughter's hair. "Sorry, hon. Not tonight."

"Besides," the girl pouted, "Dorothy's being stupid. With some intel and advance planning, she could run _rings_ around that witch. She could be _Queen_ of Oz."

X X X

**Moondor, Present Day**

As the girl formerly known as Charlie Bradbury walked through the land of Moondor, she hardly paid attention to the sights and sounds around her. Unlike Dorothy, who had stared wide-eyed at the colorful world the tornado dropped her into, Charlie's jaded royal self walked blithely past players dressed in bright-colored medieval costumes. The striking hammers of the forge and the ringing bells of the marketplace were as normal to her as the traffic outside of her old office at Dick Roman Industries. Instead, she feasted on the sight of the man walking beside her. Dean Winchester. Badass extraordinaire. Hunter of the supernatural. The man who had, about a year and a half ago, turned her world upside down.

From the moment she met him, she'd been drawn to Dean. At first, it was just curiosity, the desperate urge to understand why. _Why do Dean and his brother keep crossing my path and why, in the name of the Great Bird of the Galaxy, do I keep helping them? _

It was the itch she couldn't keep from scratching - that need to know.

Charlie knew she was a coward. Even after Dick Roman had been killed and she could have surfaced, she'd stayed hidden, afraid to make waves. Still dreaming of the Leviathan, of Dick Roman's ice-cold, contemptuous eyes, of the dance of intrigue, of her narrow escape from death. Waking up in a cold sweat.

And yet, the desire to solve the mystery of the Winchester brothers remained. She kept poking at the scab, searching out any tidbit of info she could find on them.

Especially on Dean.

She'd only recently stopped dreaming of her former boss. But the monster was gone. And Dean and Sam were here. Bringing danger with them, as always.

And excitement.

_So why the hell do I feel so safe?_

Could it be because Dean was strutting next to her, an almost innate cockiness to his walk, staring at the scenery in wide-eyed absorption? Looking more like Dorothy discovering the world of Oz than the Dean she'd met a year and a half ago. _Who would've thought? _Charlie mused. _Go-for-the-guns Winchester is a gaming whore. _She smiled at the thought of teasing him about it.

_This is gonna be fun,_ she decided. _Maybe even better than being Queen. _

X X X

**Kansas, Eighteen Years Ago**

"Why would she want that?" asked the mother, hands on her hips, book still in hand. "Why be queen? She only wants to go home."

"Right, Mom. But think of the possibilities. I mean, the Munchkins are a ready-made army, if she could just get them mobilized."

"Well, isn't that what the wicked witch did? She mobilized them. She made them her slaves."

Charlie was glad her mother didn't know that she secretly thought how much more _fun_ it would be to be the Wicked Witch. Look at all the freedom she had! But then again, the woman was _wicked_...and way too ugly.

"True, she hurt them. But what if she was a benevolent ruler?"

"Honey, slavery is slavery, no matter how you paint it. That's why we declared independence, remember?"

"But Mom, shouldn't Dorothy use all the tools at hand to win?"

"Is that all they are, Charlie? Tools?"

Charlie bit her lip. She'd been gaming now for over a year with some of the boys from school, nothing major. Just some D&D, Star Fleet Battles, Toons... Her mom's questions brought her up short. What if all this stuff were real? What if _she _ended up in a world where there was some witch or monster to vanquish. Would she see the people of the land as cannon fodder?

_Don't be silly, Charlie. It's all fantasy. There's no such thing as monsters. _

X X X

**Moondor, Present Day**

Dean looked over at Charlie, still marveling at how much she'd changed since they'd fought the Leviathan together. After her first freak-attack, she'd stood up to him and Sam and decided not to run. And he was surprised.

Surprised and more than a little proud.

"A buddy of mine was into LARPing," she was saying. "Went for him, stayed for the chicks." Dean laughed, amused but strangely embarrassed at a line that was so _him..._ coming from Charlie.

"Ah-hah!" she said.

"Ah-hah what?"

She smirked at him. "The great Dean Winchester, slayer of damsels, is blushing."

"I am not," he protested.

"Bet I could beat you in slayage, Winchester."

His smile widened and his eyes twinkled. "What, get more damsels than me? Dream on, sister."

"Step up and put your silver where your mouth is, Dean."

He was shaking his head. "Unfair advantage, Bradbury. You're the queen."

"You're telling me you've never gone up against royalty?"

"Currently fighting the King of Hell. I'll knock you flat on your blue-blooded ass."

"Watch the language, bub! You're in _my _army now," Charlie said in her most commanding tone. Dean, getting into the mood, gave a courtly bow, so low to the ground it was almost a parody.

"Don't worry, your highness, I'm not staging a coup. I'll see you through this." He quirked his eyebrows at her and offered her his hand. "Your safety, and that of your people, are my sole focus."

With that, he kicked up his heels and they started again down the dirt road, hand in hand. Dean was walking in what he probably saw as a jaunty strut, but Charlie, looking on, thought it was more like a prance, and giggled aloud at the image of Dean as the Scarecrow, dancing down the yellow brick road, looking for the Emerald City.

"You're skipping..." she wondered, "Does that make you the Scarecrow and me Dorothy?"

"You'd make a hell of a Dorothy, Charlie," Dean said. "I can just see you now. 'Man the rocket launchers, full speed ahead. Down with the witch!'"

"There are no rocket launchers in Oz," she countered.

"There are no guns in Moondor," he argued, "but that doesn't mean I'm not packin'."

X X X

**Kansas, Eighteen Years Ago**

"Okay, Mom, say Oz was real and I was Dorothy. I guess I'd do everything I could to get home to you as soon as possible. But..." She reached out and put her arms around her mother's neck. "I'd use _whatever _tools I had at my disposal. I'd try to get some intel on the witch from the Wizard _before _I set out. I'd get some weapons on my side. And if there was a _rocket launcher_ to be found in Oz, as unlikely as that sounds, I'd use that, too."

"That's my girl," said her mother, fondly. "Warlord of Oz."

"No. Her Royal Highness, the Queen Geek of Oz. Hacker Extraordinaire."

Her mother kissed her on the forehead. "Fair enough, your highness. Enough talk. Time for your royal sleep."

"Yes, Mom." Sighing, she lay back on her pillow, already plotting to get that book back _despite_ her mother's edict. _After all, her Royal Highness, the Queen Geek, should be above the rules._

X X X

**Moondor, Present Day**

Charlie shook her head. "You don't get the point of role-playing, Dean. You can imagine anything you want to, but you still have to keep within the rules. Here you're free to slip the bonds of your normal life..." She spread her hands wide, gesturing at the picturesque marketplace, the tents where merchants were showing off their wares, the gaudily dressed men and women in cape and jerkin. "I can be Queen here. I can command armies. I'm a hero. But I still can't..."

"No, Charlie." As quickly as he'd slipped into silliness, Dean was once again deadly serious. "You don't get it. Without your help, we wouldn't have been able to defeat Dick Roman. Out there, in the real world, _you're the hero."_

Charlie would have laughed, but she stopped, looking at Dean's earnest expression. And realized that Dean was more than just a friend to her.

_He's the big brother I never had._

From the moment they'd met, he'd been there for her. No matter what the situation, he had her back.

He made her forget the fear and brought out the hero in her.

Yet... he kept putting himself down. Making jokes about how he was the grunt. Denying his worth, to his last breath.

_Not in my kingdom, _she decided.

"Yep, I can see you as the Scarecrow," she admitted. "You fit the role perfectly."

"Head full of straw?"

"No, you idiot. The smartest member of the group. Dorothy's secret weapon."

Dean looked skeptical.

"Didn't you notice, in the book..." She realized he might not have read the book, and added, "and in the film, the Scarecrow was the one who came up with the battle plan to get into the castle?"

"Hah! And that makes Sam the Cowardly Lion!"

Charlie almost hated to ruin the glee on Dean's face, but did Sam _really_ need more teasing about braiding his hair?

"No, he's the Tin Man, obviously. He thinks he has no heart but he's really the most emotional one of the group."

"Yep, he's the girly one, all right."

_Well, and maybe I didn't do Sam any favors, after all._

"Well, come on, Dorothy," Dean took her arm again, adopting a more business-like strut, cheeky grin once more brightening his face. "Time to find the Wicked Witch and put her out of her misery."

"Follow the yellow brick road!" she agreed, happy to walk beside her brother. _I can't wait to find out what happens next..._

X X X


End file.
